History

The courthouse, built in 1936, is a five-story blond, brick building with a hipped tile roof on the top story and flat roofs on the lower portions. The building has glazed tile cornices and bas relief metal panels. The larger bas reliefs have scenes of farming, mining, and cattle ranching, which were the main industries in Colfax County. Some of the smaller motifs show the cattle brands from Colfax County. Some of the other architectural features include terrazzo floors, tile wainscoating, chipped-tile roof on the top story roof and flat roofs on lower areas.

The Colfax County Courthouse building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Document Availability

Birth Certificates

Birth Certificates are NOT issued at the Colfax County Clerk's Office. They may be obtained from one of the following locations:

Local Office: New Mexico Public Health Office226 East 4th StreetRaton, NM 87740Phone: (575)445-3601

Divorce Records

Colfax County clerk's office does NOT record divorce records. Divorce records are kept at the DISTRICT COURT in the county where the divorce was filed. Colfax County District Court Phone: (575)445-5584

Former Courthouses of Colfax County

Elizabethtown | Cimarron | Springer

History

History

The Santa Fe Trail's Raton Pass offshoot brought settlers from the Eastern United States to join the existing Mexican and Native American populations. Colfax County was named for Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885), the seventeenth Vice President of the United States. Detailed Historic and Cultural Overview. History and Historic Trail Maps (Dept. Interior).

Parent County

Taos County. Taos County was one of the original nine counties created by the New Mexico Territory in 1852.

Boundary Changes

Human occupation of this New Mexico area has existed by Native Americans since Folsom Man 8200 BC. The Native Americans who inhabited the land (c.1400) for hundreds of years before Europeans arrived, were called "Jicarilla Apaches" and "Utes" by the Europeans. The Jicarilla Apaches marked their boundaries by 4 rivers (renamed by subsequent populations): The Arkansas River to the north, The Canadian River to the east, The Rio Grande River to the south and the Chama River to the west. They were farmers, hunters and gatherers who had flat roofed houses and settled along the rivers ie. The Ponil, The Cimarron, The Vermejo, The Purgatory. They actively traded with their neighbors who lived in Pueblos in the west and on the Plains in the east. Their land use was usufructuary and co-existed with the Spanish and the French. They did not have the European tradition of written deeds and could not prove their ownership in the US court system up to the US Supreme Court. This population lost their land, and was physically removed by US troops in 1876. pp.1-289

During the Colonial Era this area was Territory of Spain 1598-1824. In July, 1706, General Juan de Ulibarri, Seargeant Major for the Spanish Territory, mapped, renamed the area geography, and found evidences of French fur trappers. By 1714, the Jicarilla Apaches were employed, by the Spanish, as an auxillary army on their northern border. Mexico gained Independence from Spain and this area became a Territory of Mexico 1824-1848. The Republic of Texas claimed it as part of their territory to the Rio Grande, on the west and south, 1836-1845, and invaded New Mexico in 1841; The Mexican-American War broke out in 1846, the US Military occupied New Mexico 1846 to 1851 and stationed troops through its territorial history. The US signed a Treaty with Mexico in 1848. The US annexed the northern 1/3 of the Mexican Republic.

Spanish/Mexican occupation of the land was also defined by usufructuary practices before and after and within the Land Grant borders. Before 1841, the Spanish/Mexican people living in Taos and Rio Arriba counties peacefully grazed their cattle and sheep on this land. The Carlos Beaubien/Guadalupe Miranda Land Grant was authorized in 1841 to expedite sending settlers to this area inhabited by the Jicarilla Apaches. The Beaubien/Miranda/Maxwell Land Grant borders were roughly defined: on the west, by the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains; on the north, by the Purgatory River; on the east, by the Canadian River; and on the south, roughly by a line from about Black Lake and Hall's Peak to Colmor, between Ocate and Rayado, south of Springer. Lucien Maxwell became the largest private landowner in the history of the United States. Contrary to his epitaph he acquired the land through marriage, his wife's inheritance, buying out the remaining heirs and the difference in coverture laws between the US and Mexico. Settlers' property lines within the land grant were affirmed by Lucien Maxwell's personal word and handshake. The boundaries, were not accepted by the US court system including the US Supreme Court. In 1870, Maxwell sold his interests to English and Dutch financiers backed by US federal and US Territorial government officials. Serious boundary disputes followed for the next two decades. These conflicts underlined by, the clash of suspicion and collusion between colonials settlers, miners, deceitful financiers and the corrupt territorial government, resulted in the Colfax County War,1875-1878, and the Battle at Stonewall Valley (1887-1888) that ultimately resulted in the loss of land by the Spanish/Mexican colonial settlers, homestead "squatters" and others, who were forced to repurchase their own land or were removed. pp. 1-289 . Many of the persons who did not move out of the county or were unable to compete with corporate interests and economic markets, gave up their borders for wage paying jobs in the emerging coal mining camps.

Other items important to the establishment of borders are as follows: The Northwest Ordinance; Manifest Destiny; The US Congress failure to ratify Article 10 of the Treaty with Mexico which allowed Mexican landowners to keep their land; The establishment of a provisional tammany hall style Territorial Government 1846 - 1912; The Homestead Act of 1862; The discovery of rich gold (1867), copper, and coal deposits (1865) within the land grant: and the personal intervention of corrupt New Mexico and Colorado and federal officials, foreign colonial interests, and other interested parties in establishing their land rights.

The border with Colorado was designated by the US Congress in the creation of the Territory of Colorado in 1860, even though there was contiguously owned property by New Mexicans. After the Stonewall Revolt in 1888 and the litigation between the US Government and the foreign owned Maxwell Land Grant Company. p.89-287, New Mexicans and Colorodans lost ownership of that land. New Mexicans finally agreed to statehood, more than 60 years after annexation. It became a State in 1912

Colfax County was created in January 25,1869 from Mora County which was created from Taos County in 1860. Colfax County originally covered the entire Northeast corner of the state to the Texas border. In 1893 the eastern portion of Colfax County was taken to create Union County. A southern portion of Colfax County was divided in 1921 to create Harding County. p.289

The original county seat, 1869, was the gold mining town of Elizabethtown. In 1872 the county seat was moved to Cimarron a stage coach stop along the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail and home of the Maxwell Land Grant. In 1881, it was moved from Cimarron to Springer, a railroad town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. In 1897, after a bitter legislative fight the county seat was moved to Raton, an important coal mining town and railroad center.

Record Loss

Places and Localities

Geography

According to the US Census Bureau, Colfax County has a total area of 3,768 square miles. Is the size of the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. The boundaries from east to west extend 69 miles, and north to south, 54 miles. . Of which only 11 square miles of it is water. There are 84 lakes in the county. A large portion of the County lies in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains,Southern Rockies. The geography ranges from alpine meadows,foothills with their mining regions, aspen, pine and pinon forests, to the semi arid prairies and cattle lands of the plains. List of Valleys, Summitts, Ridges, Streams, Lakes, Dams, Springs and Creeks. [dead link]Interactive Map.

Post - Statehood

Mining

The mountains of Colfax County were rich in gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal. page 64; p.90-107;

30 miles to the west of Lucien Maxwell's ranch, Elizabethtown and Virginia City were established in the Moreno Valley close to the extensive placers and mines. Resulting in 5 million dollars of gold output between 1867 and 1872. Near these mines, "one of the richest copper mines of the world" had been established before the discovery of gold in 1867. page 65.

The existence of coal deposits were first officially noticed by Wislezenus, Tour of Northern New Mexico in 1848. p.63 , and by Lt. Colonel Emory, Notes of Military Reconnoissance of 1848, page 19. Although, travellers of The Santa Fe Trail, knew of its existence, many years prior. In 1865, Prof. Richard Dale Owen, noted that a five foot coal bed was clearly visible from Lucien Maxwell's hacienda and was close to the stage road. The survey estimated coal deposits to measure 870, 000 acres with contents of 30 billion, 805 million tons. Coal was mined in large scale.1907, the year of greatest production, output of 1,844,550 tons was reached.

Newspapers

Probate

Santa Fe Trail

Santa Fe Trail went through Colfax County in two places.

1. The Mountain Route went south from Trinidad, Colorado, through Raton Pass, down the slope toward the town of Cimarron. There was a stop on the Canadian River at the Clifton House. About nine miles to the southwest the trail splits, one going to the town of rayado and the other to Cimarron. The Road travels on to Springer.

2. The Santa Fe Trail crosses Colfax County from the eastern border of the Kiowa Grasslands near Clayton, New Mexico, and travels through the Gaine's Cattle Ranch, then beneath the Point of Rocks Mesa, and then travels through the Gillespie Ranch, east of Springer.